Death of man crushed by storage box at issue in trial

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October 20, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Tue Oct 20, 2009, 10:58 PM CDT

By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A Jasper County jury began hearing testimony Tuesday in the trial of a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by family members of a man who was killed when a large storage box toppled onto him two years ago in Galena, Kan.

Michael Ellis Sr. was killed Oct. 7, 2007, while moving his family’s belongings onto leased property at 1503 and 1505 W. Seventh St. in Galena. Ellis was driving a tractor that was pulling the metal storage box off a flatbed tow truck onto a concrete slab when the container toppled forward, crushing him.

His widow, Wilma Ellis, of Afton, Okla., and adult son and daughter, Michael Ellis Jr. and Laura Drake, are suing John Meyer of John Meyer Truck and Foreign Salvage of Joplin. Meyer had agreed to lease the property to the Ellises and was assisting the deceased in moving the storage box there on his flatbed tow truck.

Ordinary care

The Ellises allege that Meyer failed to exercise ordinary care in assisting Michael Ellis Sr. on that day.

Shelly Dreyer, attorney for the plaintiffs, told jurors during opening statements in Jasper County Circuit Court that Meyer never hooked up the truck’s backup winch to the box before the bed of the truck was raised in an effort to slide the box onto the concrete pad. Dreyer said Ellis had no experience with tow trucks and could not anticipate the accident that took his life.

She said the problem was that the container did not slide off the truck when the bed was raised. So the men hooked a chain to a tractor that Meyer also provided to Ellis, and Ellis attempted to pull the box off the truck.

Dreyer said an accident reconstruction expert who the defense intends to call to testify at the trial initially believed that Meyer got in the truck at that point and pulled it forward, causing the box to topple onto Ellis and the tractor. She said the defense’s expert later changed to an opinion that the box had come off the truck bed and was being dragged across the pad by the tractor when the weight of its contents shifted forward and it fell on the victim.

Dreyer said two sheriff’s deputies who responded to the scene reported hearing Meyer acknowledge that he had moved the truck.

“The evidence will be that Mr. Meyer did have an active role in this,” she said.

Truck moved?

Defense attorney James Nordstrom said the plaintiffs’ claim that Meyer moved the truck forward, causing the box to topple over, is not accurate. He said a police officer’s report states that it appeared to the officer that the tractor kept pulling the box once it was off the truck. The officer’s report does not mention anything about Meyer being in the truck or moving it, Nordstrom said.

He said his client was not in the truck at the time but was standing beside it. He said that if Meyer had been in the truck, he would not have been able to witness the container tipping over as he did, because the raised bed of the truck would have blocked the view of anyone in its cab.

Nordstrom said Ellis and Meyer were friends, and Ellis had asked to borrow the truck. They watched a NASCAR race together that day, and Meyer bought his friend dinner at a restaurant before helping him move the box. Nordstrom said his client agreed to help his friend that day despite his own “orthopedic issues” that were hampering him physically at the time.

The box reportedly was full of tools, fishing equipment and other items, and weighed in excess of 2,000 pounds.

Nordstrom told jurors that Ellis had been with Meyer several times previously in the truck and knew how to use it. He also had plenty of familiarity driving the tractor, which Meyer lent him to mow the property, Nordstrom said.

“Mr. Ellis was the one who set this whole thing up and pulled that box,” Nordstrom said.

Nordstrom said the defense’s expert witness changed his opinion concerning how the accident happened only after better digital photographs of the accident scene were obtained from police.

The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages in the lawsuit.

Wrongful-death lawsuit

Jurors were selected Monday to hear a lawsuit in the death of Michael Ellis Sr., and testimony commenced Tuesday. The trial is expected to wrap up near the end of the week.

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Death of man crushed by storage box at issue in trial

Six judges in a county in Kansas are using iPads to sign off on search warrants so law enforcement can more quickly draw blood from suspected drunken drivers. Do you think more counties should use this technology?

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